Concessions and Leases in the Lao PDR

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account for 123,673 ha of the total area under investment. Investment occurs heavily throughout the Lao PDR, though the total area under investment is greatest in the North while Central Lao PDR has the highest number of deals. A range of products are cultivated or extracted from lands under investment, and follow patterns likely linked to biophysical conditions, export market demand and policy drivers. Sugarcane and Jatropha, in which Thai and South Korean investors are the most involved, cover vast areas (34,969 ha and 25,179 ha respectively) compared to other agricultural products, and are predominantly located in the South and Central regions where flat, productive agricultural lands are more abundant. 66% of tree plantations are located in the South, mostly under Vietnamese investment. Rubber is by far the dominant tree planted regardless of region or investor (with 225 deals covering 129,614 ha). These numbers also underrepresent the extent of rubber cultivation, considering that contract farming rubber schemes, which are frequent in the North, are legally not concession or lease agreements (and are hence generally not included in these figures). This is despite the fact that various studies have shown some contract farming to resemble concessions in their implications for labour and compensation agreements (Shi, 2008; Dwyer, forthcoming). Mining exploitation projects occur primarily in the North and Central regions, with only 6% of all area under mining investment located in the South. Mining exploration projects cover vast expanses of land (1,026,873 ha), almost equal to all other areas under concession or lease combined. Spatial Analysis and Context To gain some insight into the socioeconomic and biophysical context in which land concessions and leases are granted, this publication analyses the inventory data in combination with a variety of secondary data. Although only 1,258 deals (53% of all deals) are spatially referenced and therefore included in this part of the analysis, the outcomes contribute significantly to wider debate on land leases and concessions. Not surprisingly, most area under investment (68%) occurs in the lowlands of the Lao PDR (below elevations of 500 masl). Areas under investment also tend to be relatively accessible, with most within one hour travel time to the nearest district capital. Primary sector deals occur in the most remote areas of all sectors, with mining projects on average occurring farthest from district capitals (58% of projects over 2 hours from the closest district capital). Areas under foreign investment are also less accessible on average, especially compared with those under domestic investment – a trend most likely related to the larger average project area and heavier involvement in primary sector activities of foreign investors. In total, the spatial analysis includes approximately 1,900 villages with land under concession or lease – again, a conservative figure considering the limited number of spatially referenced land deals. Areas where investment projects occur show an average poverty incidence of 27% (poverty incidence is calculated using methods defined by Epprecht et al. (2008)). This is significantly lower than the only available nationwide village level poverty estimation which estimated the average poverty incidence at 34.7% (Epprecht, 2008). Similarly, literacy rates in areas under investment are 80%, seven percentage points higher than the national average of 73%. Whether the impacts of investment projects differ in remote as compared to more accessible areas is an important question for further research. Foreign investment, particularly from Vietnam, China and Thailand, occurs in areas slightly less affluent than domestic and joint venture projects, though all still have poverty incidences below the national average. Primary sector project areas are, of all areas under investment, the poorest and least literate, with forestry subsector investments occurring in the poorest areas of almost every subsector. Lao-Tai is the dominant ethno-linguistic family in areas under investment (72% of people in areas under investment are Lao-Tai as compared with 64% of the national population). Populations in areas with primary sector investment projects, which tend to be more remote and less affluent, have a greater per cent of non-Lao-Tai (34%) than any other sector. The GoL has set an ambitious goal of reaching 65% forest cover by 2015 and 70% by 2020 (MAF, 2005). The Forestry Law (GoL, 2007) defines and delineates three forest management categories: conservation, protection and production forest. These categories do not indicate the current land cover but are instead administrative categories determining management and land use regulations. By overlapping the inventory data with spatial data (MAF/DoF, 2011), almost one third of all concessions and leases granted were shown to occur on lands categorized as forest. While production forest could be expected to host the greatest number of investment projects considering limitations on development activities in protection and conservation forest areas, most investment occurs on lands categorized as protection forest (23% of all area under investment). This gap between regulatory level priorities and on-the-ground development is a major concern, and demands further study if forest regeneration and protection is to be taken seriously as a policy priority. National Forest Inventory Data (MAF, 2002) was used for analysis of the land cover classes under investment in the Lao PDR. The results indicate that the largest share of land under investment occurred within ‘unstocked forest and ray’, with 45% of all area under investment in this land cover class, followed by 37% on ‘forest’ land. Unstocked forest and ray includes varying types of bush fallow, some secondary forest and areas under rotational agricultural systems. The dominance of these two land classes in land under investment will likely mean significant impacts on land cover – particularly on forested land – in the Lao PDR. 10 Concessions and Leases in the Lao PDR: Taking Stock of Land Investments
Outlook The findings of this publication serve distinct purposes in the wider debate over land concessions and leases in the Lao PDR. To start with, they serve as an important baseline for further research. These results, in combination with existing case studies, point to a number of weaknesses in current land management and governance. Specifically, they highlight issues in investment policy implementation, government coordination and transparency. This publication also presents opportunities for deeper analysis or the scaling up of current findings. Further research is necessary to gain a wider understanding of key driving factors and decision making processes behind the trends in land investments observed here. Furthermore, the publication improves the potential for visual presentation and analysis – the spatial “legibility”, so to speak – of the current landscape of resource-based investment in the Lao PDR. It moves beyond specific case studies to make sense of the wider context of land-intensive investment, which is a critical step considering the lag between regulation and government capacity for monitoring, and the pace of granting investments in land. There also exist many other data layers which, combined with the inventory data, may reveal additional findings and expand on the analysis presented here. Finally, beyond the policy implications of the results, the fact that this data has been collected on a national scale, analysed and published in this format, represents an important achievement in transparency. This represents a landmark in the development of tools for evidence-based policymaking, as well as for wider efforts at reforming the collection, organization and sharing of information in the Lao PDR. The authors of this publication thus hope that its findings may therefore shape relevant legal frameworks and contribute to the revision of the forestry and land laws, as well the elaboration of an overarching and coherent land and natural resource management policy. Executive Summary 11
Page 1 and 2: Concessions and Leases in the Lao P
Page 3 and 4: Concessions and Leases in the Lao P
Page 5 and 6: Table of Contents List of Figures L
Page 7 and 8: List of Maps Map 1: Locations of Co
Page 9 and 10: Acronyms BMZ Bundesministerium für
Page 11 and 12: Foreword The Lao PDR is rich in nat
Page 13: Executive Summary Investment in lan
Page 17 and 18: I - INTRODUCTION This publication p
Page 19 and 20: continuing data collection and data
Page 21 and 22: area data and cover 1.1 million hec
Page 23 and 24: II - RESULTS Chapter 2 presents an
Page 25 and 26: Map 1: Locations of Concessions and
Page 27 and 28: Table 2: Overview of Investment Pro
Page 29 and 30: Table 4: Overview of Investment Pro
Page 31 and 32: 2.1.7 - Trends in Approvals over Ti
Page 33 and 34: eucalyptus are the main forestry pr
Page 35 and 36: 2.2.1 - Investment in the Agricultu
Page 37 and 38: Map 6: Investment Project Locations
Page 39 and 40: ventures in eucalyptus are the larg
Page 41 and 42: Table 8: Overview of Forestry Subse
Page 43 and 44: Map 8: Investment Project Locations
Page 45 and 46: as these are key to China’s expan
Page 47 and 48: Table 10: Overview of Mining Subsec
Page 49 and 50: In contrast to exploitation mining
Page 51 and 52: Table 13: Overview of Mining Explor
Page 53 and 54: Table 15: Overview of Secondary Sec
Page 55 and 56: Map 14: Investment Project Location
Page 57 and 58: III - CONTEXT OF INVESTMENT The gra
Page 59 and 60: Table 18: Elevation of Investment P
Page 61 and 62: Thai investments take place in regi
Page 63 and 64: domestic projects in these two subs
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Map 18: Poverty Incidence Map, Inve
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Table 22: Poverty Incidence by Subs
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3.3.3 - Ethnicity in Areas under In
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3.4 - Forest Categories The GoL has
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Figure 24: Area under Investment in
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In terms of the land cover classes
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Figure 27a: Area per Land Cover Cla
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IV - CONCLUSIONS The “State Land
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more, the fact that this data has b
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Rubber Plantation, Long District, L
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Issues in land surveying for projec
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Land Categories and Site Surveys Th
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Compensatory Activities Case Study
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Lignite Mine, Hongsa District, Saya
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Concessions and Leases in the Lao PDR

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